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BUTTE, Mont. -- Although it
was a generally successful
regular season, there were
certainly sputtering moments
for the Lewis-Clark State
men's basketball team.
But in the postseason,
the Warriors have suddenly
caught a rising surge of
momentum. LCSC completed its
impressive romp through the
Frontier Conference
tournament with a 99-75
bombardment of
Montana-Western in the
championship game Saturday
night.
It's the Warriors' second
straight FC tournament
title, and locks up a return
trip to the NAIA Division I
national tournament later
this month at Kansas City,
Mo. It will be LCSC's sixth
appearance at nationals, but
the first time it has gone
in consecutive seasons.
And at the moment, the
Warriors are sizzling. They
were the third seed, but had
little trouble blasting
Montana State-Northern and
Westminster as they advanced
to this championship-game
blowout.
"I think we are playing
some of our best basketball
at the right time," L-C
coach George Pfeifer said,
"and I hope that we just
continue to do that when we
get to this next venue."
Saturday's victory over
UMW was similar to the
earlier wins: LCSC used
lights-out shooting to build
an early lead, and got a
heroic performance from a
somewhat overshadowed
player.
Forward Chris Pitts
collected 20 points and 15
rebounds (seven of which
were offensive). Most of the
6-foot-9 sophomore's
production came in the
second half, when the
Warriors began pounding the
ball inside.
L-C led by as much as 11
points in the first half,
but the potent Bulldogs
rallied early in the second
half. They were within five
points with less than 15
minutes remaining.
At that juncture, Pitts
made consecutive putbacks,
and that sparked a 9-1
charge. Joey Ray's 3-pointer
with 9:10 remaining then put
the Warriors up 13, and the
lead remained double-digits
the rest of the night.
In the first half, LCSC
went bananas from outside,
hitting 10 of 15 3-point
tries. Clarkston High
product Justin Fraser, who
canned four of those
first-half bombs, finished
with 17 points -- one better
than the career high he
established on Friday.
Still, UMW was within
seven points at halftime
after hitting 53 percent of
its first-half shots.
"I though we guarded
really hard; we didn't give
up much. And they were just
making tough, tough shots,"
Pfeifer said. "But in the
second half, they shot 28
percent. ... I thought our
defensive pressure wore them
down."
The Warriors (25-8) grew
into one of the NAIA's best
defensive team as the season
progressed, but their
offense had occasional
trouble. In this tournament,
however, they averaged 87.7
points and shot well over 50
percent.
LCSC assistant coach Tim
Walker "has been pestering
me for a month to put this
different motion offense
in," Pfeifer said. "The
other thing we were running
didn't seem to produce
points, so we put it in. ...
It's been great for us; the
kids have been playing with
some freedom.
"You look at our scoring
and, all of a sudden, now
we're in the 90s," he added.
"Now you couple that with
our defense ... I wish the
national tournament was this
weekend."
Statistics from this game
were not available due to
technical problems at Butte.
NOTES -- The Warriors'
previous trips to nationals
came in 1992, '96, 2000, '02
and '04. Pfeifer has been
the coach for all of them.
... The tournament gets
going March 16, and pairings
will be announced in a few
days. ... LCSC's Martin
Brothers and Danny Allen
were named first-team picks
on the All-Frontier
Conference team, and Spencer
Bishop was deemed defensive
player of the year. On the
women's side, the Warriors'
Ashley Baker and Nikki
Haerling were first-team
selections while Haerling
was named newcomer of the
year. ... In Saturday's
women's championship game,
Carroll beat Montana-Western
73-72. |
